Reinsurance

New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer's probe into insurance industry corruption includes an investigation into brokers' strong-arming insurers into giving them reinsurance business, a source close to the situation said Monday. Reinsurance is the sharing of risk by secondary insurance companies, which collect a share of the premiums.

WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators hit four national private mortgage insurance companies Thursday with a combined $15.4 million in fines to settle allegations of making improper kickbacks to lenders to steer consumer business to them. The fines, which the companies have agreed to as part of proposed consent orders, could be followed by penalties against lenders as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continued an investigation into so-called reinsurance kickbacks. "The mortgage insurance business can be lucrative, and our investigation indicates that lenders sought to leverage their control over the business to capture some of those revenues for themselves," said Richard Cordray, the bureau's director.

Lloyd's of London faces an audit by U.S. regulators amid concern that some syndicates in the largest insurance market may be unable to pay billions of dollars in claims after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The National Assn. of Insurance Commissioners hired accounting firm Andersen to begin a probe into Lloyd's reinsurance arrangements, said Adrian Beeby, a spokesman for Lloyd's. Lloyd's faces a bill from the disaster of $7.

A unit of billionaire Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. acquired a block of the U.S. life reinsurance business of Swiss Reinsurance Co. for nearly $1.3 billion, freeing up the Zurich, Switzerland, company's capital for more profitable investments. The deal with Berkshire Hathaway Life Insurance Inc., announced Monday, was retroactive to Oct. 1. It will release 300 million Swiss francs (about $292 million) in capital reserves for Swiss Reinsurance. Under terms of the deal, called a retrocession, Omaha-based Berkshire Hathaway will be able to pocket premiums but also will be on the line for as much as $1.5 billion in potential losses.

Reinsurance is not what you'd call Topic A at dinner parties. It's an unsexy business, not easily understood and filled with companies with odd names that seem accidentally chopped off, such as General Re and American Re. Reinsurance serves a purpose, though. So-called primary insurers that deal with the public, such as Allstate, buy reinsurance so that if they're hit with big claims from a hurricane, flood or some other catastrophe, they can shoulder the cost with another company.

WASHINGTON -- Federal regulators hit four national private mortgage insurance companies Thursday with a combined $15.4 million in fines to settle allegations of making improper kickbacks to lenders to steer consumer business to them. The fines, which the companies have agreed to as part of proposed consent orders, could be followed by penalties against lenders as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau continued an investigation into so-called reinsurance kickbacks. "The mortgage insurance business can be lucrative, and our investigation indicates that lenders sought to leverage their control over the business to capture some of those revenues for themselves," said Richard Cordray, the bureau's director.

Garamendi Slams Inter-American: California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi has ordered Inter-American Insurance Co. of Illinois to cease writing new and renewal insurance and to reverse a loan and two other transactions. In the order, Garamendi objected to four actions by Inter-American: the collateralization of a $2.

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said it had put two employees on leave because of reinsurance accounting investigations. An employee of Berkshire's General Re Corp. was placed on administrative leave with pay after the Justice Department said it was targeting the individual in a probe, Berkshire said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Berkshire also put on leave the chief executive of London-based Faraday Group.

US Facilities Corp., a Costa Mesa holding company for insurance underwriting and reinsurance firms, could miss out on up to $9 million in earnings this year because unexpected delays in dealings with potential insurance company clients will cause some fees to be deferred until next year. The delays will lower expected net income this year by 30 cents to 50 cents a share, said George Kadonada, the company's chairman. Securities analysts had estimated that the company would have net income of $1.

The New York-based company lowered its estimate of Los Angeles-based Ticor Mortgage Insurance's ability to pay claims on defaulted mortgages. Standard & Poor's knocked the rating to CCC from AA. The estimate was lowered because of recent disclosures that Ticor may lose up to $166 million on delinquent mortgages connected with Equity Programs Investment, a real estate syndication company based in Falls Church, Va.

Reinsurance companies including Munich Re and Swiss Reinsurance Co., the world's largest, may raise premium rates "across the board" after Hurricane Katrina, insurance ratings firm A.M. Best said. "Katrina has made the prospect for an uplift in reinsurance rates more realistic," A.M. Best senior analyst Miles Trotter said Sunday in Monte Carlo. "Losses for Katrina are ballooning by the day."

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. said it had put two employees on leave because of reinsurance accounting investigations. An employee of Berkshire's General Re Corp. was placed on administrative leave with pay after the Justice Department said it was targeting the individual in a probe, Berkshire said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Berkshire also put on leave the chief executive of London-based Faraday Group.

State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi on Monday widened his investigation of the title insurance industry to include whether companies were overcharging for policies. During a daylong hearing in downtown Los Angeles, Garamendi grilled top title insurance industry executives about the practice of sharing customer premiums with home builders, real estate brokers and other partners.

LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., a title insurer under investigation in California, said it would cease the reinsurance arrangements that prompted the probe. California Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi said Tuesday that the arrangements essentially served as kickbacks to builders who referred clients to LandAmerica and a second insurer, Fidelity National Financial Inc. On Wednesday, LandAmerica, based in Richmond, Va., said Garamendi's statements were "untrue and misleading."

New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer's probe into insurance industry corruption includes an investigation into brokers' strong-arming insurers into giving them reinsurance business, a source close to the situation said Monday. Reinsurance is the sharing of risk by secondary insurance companies, which collect a share of the premiums.

Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. said it will eliminate 5.2% of its workforce, exit the property-casualty reinsurance business and take a $1.7-billion charge against earnings to boost reserves against asbestos claims. The financial services company said the job cuts will include the discharge of 850 people and the elimination of 650 vacant positions. Hartford shares rose $2.88, or 6.6%, to $46.50 on the NYSE.

US Facilities Corp. in Costa Mesa reported drastically reduced earnings and announced plans to buy back up to 6.4% of its stock on the open market over the next year. A holding company for underwriting management and reinsurance firms, US Facilities posted net income of $66,000 in the second quarter, down 83% from the previous year's $392,000. Quarterly revenues more than doubled to $6.7 million from $3.1 million a year ago.

"Lloyd's of London Under Fire" (Jan. 9) was a fine, objective and totally accurate description of the Lloyd's fiasco. The subsequent letter you ran from Peter Middleton, chief executive officer of Lloyd's, suggesting that investors knew--or should have known--of the risks involved in their investment typifies the attitude of many English aristocrats in and around the London market ("Checks and Balances Assure That Lloyd's of London Investors Know...

Warren Buffett may buy General Electric Co.'s Employers Reinsurance Corp., making the investor's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. the world's biggest reinsurer by premium income, people familiar with the situation said Sunday. Price is the major obstacle, they said. Buffett has offered less than the $8 billion GE wants, questioning whether the unit has sufficient loss reserves, they said.

General Electric Co. is considering selling a 20% stake in its property and casualty reinsurance unit to the public and spinning off the remainder to investors later this year, people familiar with the situation said. An initial public offering for shares in Employers Reinsurance Corp., a unit of GE's financial arm GE Capital, could raise $2 billion, and the unit as a whole could fetch about $10 billion, the people said.